House Passes HR 5515 – FY 2019 NDAA

On Thursday the House passed HR 5515, the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by a bipartisan vote of 351-66 (7 Republicans voted Nay). On Wednesday the House passed the Coast Guard Authorization Act amendment (amendment #52) to the bill as part of en bloc amendment #1 by a voice vote.

The Senate Armed Services Committee completed work on their version of the NDAA this week and will have a bill to introduce the week after next when Congress returns from its extended Memorial Day Weekend. That bill will move to the Senate floor in the coming weeks for a contentious amendment process. Once it is passed (probably before the summer recess) it will go to a conference committee to work out the differences. Both of the amendments that I have covered here will likely make it into the final bill.

Bills Introduced - 05-16-17

With both the House and Senate in session yesterday there were 78 bills introduced. One of those bills may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

S 1129 A bill to authorize appropriations for the Coast Guard, and for other purposes. Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]

This is the bill that I mentioned earlier this week. A copy of the text (official or otherwise) is still not available. I will be watching for cybersecurity issues as well as chemical transportation safety and security requirements. A reminder: the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will mark-up this bill up tomorrow.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 10-27-13

Both the Senate and the House will be in town this week and the pace of hearings is getting back to normal after the fiscal fiasco has passed. There are four House hearings and one Senate hearing that might be of specific interest to readers of this blog. They include three mark-up hearings, one Coast Guard authorization hearing and one cybersecurity hearing.

Mark-up Hearings

The House Homeland Security Committee will try for a third time on Tuesday to mark-up a group of bills including HR 1204, HR 1791, HR 2952, and HR 3107. I wrote about this hearing in some detail last week on the second attempt to hold this hearing.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a mark-up hearing on Tuesday that will address four bills including HR 3300, the FEMA Reauthorization Act of 2013 that I described yesterday. No word yet on any potential amendments.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will have a Business Meeting today. It will either include a mark-up of some legislation, consider nominations or both; no agenda has been published.

Coast Guard Authorization

The Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will meet on Tuesday to look at a variety of issues that might be included in a Coast Guard authorization bill. The current ‘Summary of Subject Matter’ published by the Committee does not include mention of any security or chemical safety issues.

Cybersecurity

Wednesday will see a potentially interesting take on cybersecurity when the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications and the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protections and Security Technologies of the House Homeland Security Committee (whew, that’s a lot of words) hold a joint hearing on “Cyber Incident Response: Bridging the Gap Between Cybersecurity and Emergency Management”. No agenda or witness list is currently available.

Rules Committee Publishes Rule for Consideration of HR 2838

Yesterday afternoon the House Rules Committee met to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 2838, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011. Actually, the bill to be considered on the floor will be a combination of HR 2838 and HR2840, the Commercial Vessel Discharges Reform Act of 2011, published as the Rules Committee Print of HR 2838. The rule will be a structured rule with ‘just’ eighteen amendments approved by the Committee for consideration by the House.

I don’t see anything in these amendments that would have any particular impact or influence on chemical or cyber security issues in a maritime environment. The same cannot be said for some of the amendments offered but that were not included in the Rule. Two amendments would have been of interest to the chemical facility security community in particular, one dealing with TWIC Readers and the other with small boat attacks.

TWIC Reader Amendment

An amendment offered by Ranking Member Thompson (D,MS) would have modified §70107 of 46 USC to allow recipients of port security grants from 2007 through 2009 to postpone spending monies on TWIC Readers until “one year after the date of promulgation pursuant to section 70105 of such title of final regulations relating to such readers.” This would have allowed entities to use grant funds to purchase TWIC Readers that might actually comply with the ultimate requirements for those devices.

Small Boat Attack Report

An amendment offered by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D, CA) would have required a report to Congress by the Commandant on “the threat of, vulnerability to, and consequence of an attack of terrorism using a small vessel to attack United States vessels, ports, or maritime interests on an ongoing basis” (§612). Presumably we are talking about attacks like that made on the USS Cole during a port call in the Middle East. It’s even possible that the use of semi-submersibles as a route of attack could have been considered in the report.

Rejected En Bloc

While these two amendments seem to be reasonable topics for the floor debate on the bill they were rejected by the Committee. Part of the reason is that Ranking Member Slaughter (D,NY) bundled them with a number of other amendments to be considered en bloc. With eighteen amendments already in the rule that was just too many amendments for a structured rule. They were rejected on a straight party line vote.

To Be Considered Today on the House Floor

According to the Majority Leader’s web page, the House will ‘begin consideration’ of HR 2838 today shortly after 9:00 a.m. With the last vote scheduled for before 3:00 pm (members have to plan their flights home for the weekend) it is an open question whether or not there will be a final vote on passage today. The rule does allow at any point in the debate for Transportation Committee Chairman LoBiondo to offer the remaining amendments to be considered en bloc (bundled into a single 10 minute debate and a single vote), so it is certainly possible that the final vote of the day could be a vote on passage of this bill.

S 1665 Introduced – Coast Guard Authorization

Earlier this month (and just published this week by the GPO) Sen. Begich (D, AK) introduced S 1665, the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013. Begich is the Chair of the Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee which is why he gets the blame for this piece of weak legislation.

There is nothing in this bill that addresses chemical security or safety issues. In fact, the Coast Guard’s homeland security mission is completely ignored in this bill. For instance §101(a)(3) provides the following as a list of Coast Guard missions to be supported by R&D funding:

• Search and rescue;  

• Aids to navigation;

• Marine safety;

• Marine environmental protection;

• Enforcement of laws and treaties;

• Ice operations;

• Oceanographic research; and

• Defense readiness.

I suppose that the MTSA community should be happy that there are no new requirements added in this bill, but it does appear that the reason is not that the regulatory environment is completely covered but more because of a lack of attention.

HR 2838 Report Published – CG Authorization

Last week the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure published their report on HR 2838, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011. Not much has changed from a chemical security perspective in the amended version of the bill reported from when the bill was introduced.

Interfering with GPS

As I noted in my earlier blog §302 makes it a class E felony to interfere “with the broadcast or reception of a radio, microwave, or other signal (including a signal from a global positioning system)” {proposed amendment to 14 USC 88(e)}. Interestingly the explanation of that section in the Committee Report (pg 22) never mentions GPS, simply referring to ‘Aids to Navigation’. Actually that explanation may target GPS signal tampering better than the wording in §302.

Fast Track

It looks like this bill may be on a relative fast track to consideration before the House. The report includes letters from Chairman King (R,NY; Homeland Security Committee) and Chairman Smith (R,TX; Judiciary Committee) explaining that they are foregoing requesting serial referral of the bill to their respective committees “in order that it may proceed expeditiously to the House floor for consideration” {Chairman Smith letter, September 27^th, 2011; page 58 of Report}. Interestingly, neither Committee was originally included in the committee referral list at introduction; should they have been?

Transportation Committee Marks Up CG and Pipeline Bills

Today the House Transportation Committee held a markup hearing where it approved five bills by voice votes; including two bills that might be of interest to readers of this blog:

H.R. 2838, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011; and

H.R. 2845, the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011.

HR 2838

I discussed the provisions of HR 2838 when it was introduced last week. None of the amendments offered today (7 offered, 3 withdrawn, 4 passed by  voice votes) had any effect on the provisions discussed in that posting. Neither did any of the amendments address and MTSA/TWIC issues or pending Certain Dangerous Cargo rules. In short, there is nothing in this bill (besides the GPS interference provisions) that will have any appreciable effect on chemical security or chemical safety in a maritime environment.

I did note in that earlier post that this bill was obviously a priority for Subcommittee Chairman LoBiondo (R,NJ). The full committee markup today is an indication of the importance accorded to this bill by both LoBiondo and Committee Chair Mica (R,FL).

HR 2845

HR 2845 was introduced yesterday by Rep. Shuster (R, PA) and an official copy of the bill is not yet available on the GPO web site. The link above is to a committee draft of the bill. A quick review of that draft shows that this bill has some significant difference from the House Energy and Commerce bill on the same topic that I discussed back in July. It is also appears substantially different from S 275 that addresses most of the same topics.

Since this bill was referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee as well as the Transportation Committee, the two slightly different approaches to pipeline safety will have to be reconciled before the bill comes to a floor vote. The version adopted by the full House (a relative certainty given the bipartisan support shown for the bill in Committee today) will most likely have to then be reconciled with the version of S 275 that will be adopted by Committee in that body.

NOTE: I did not include this hearing in my weekly list of upcoming hearings because it was not announced until yesterday.

HR 2838 Introduced – CG Authorization

Yesterday, during the pro forma session of the House, Rep. LoBiondo (R,NJ), introduced HR 2838, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011. LoBiondo is the Chair of the Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

This proposed legislation is a significant deviation from the recent history of authorization bills in that it does not introduce a large number of new programs and responsibilities for the covered organization. The bill does include a new policy on sexual harassment/violence {§202} and it does call for an assessment to be made on “the need for additional Coast Guard prevention and response capability in the high latitude regions” {§308}. These and a few other new requirements form a really modest set of mandates for the Coast Guard.

No mention is made of the Maritime Transportation Security Act or any of its components.

GPS Interference

There is an interesting provision that the Federal Communications Commission and Lightspeed may find disconcerting. Section 302 of the bill would make it a Class E Felony to “knowingly and willfully operate[s] a device that interferes with the broadcast or reception of a radio, microwave, or other signal (including a signal from a global positioning system) transmitted, retransmitted, or augmented by the Coast Guard for the purpose of maritime safety”.

Where the appropriations committees have been requiring reports from various agencies on the reports of GPS interference by the proposed new broadband communications system from Lightspeed, Chairman LoBiondo appears to be trying to do something about it. It remains to be seen how liberal (excuse me for mentioning ‘liberal’ and ‘LoBiondo in the same paragraph) he expects the term ‘maritime safety’ to extend. Would it cover, for instance, control systems at portside chemical facilities?

Authorization Bill a Priority

According to the Subcommittee web site, passing a Coast Guard Authorization Bill is a priority for Chairman LoBiondo. We’ll have to watch how quickly it progresses in the next couple of weeks to see how much of a priority it really is. Of course, this bill will have to be reconciled with the desires of Chairman Rockefeller of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

HR 6516 – Technical Corrections to CG Authorization Act of 2010

Yesterday, during a pro-forma meeting of the House (meaning that essentially no one was there), Rep. Oberstar (D, MN) introduced what is probably the last bill of this long career in the House, HR 6516. This bill would make a number of technical corrections to the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 (PL 111–281) that was passed (as HR 3619) back on September 30, 2010. HR 6516 will be taken up by the House later today. I would expect that this will pass.

It seems odd that it has taken the Transportation Committee Staff over a year to find these discrepancies in this bill and get a corrections bill crafted for the last week (maybe) of the lame duck session of the 111th Congress. Oh well, better late than never.

HR 3619 Sent to President

The House finally got around to addressing HR 3169, the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 which made it the first DHS authorization bill to passed this year. The Senate passed the bill in early May, substituting Senate language for bill that passed in the House last October. Title VIII, Port Security, contains the provisions of the bill that might be of interest to the Chemical Security Community

America’s Waterway Watch Program

The bill does establish a waterway watch program designed to encourage reporting of “activities that may indicate that a person or persons may be preparing to engage or engaging in a violation of law relating to a threat or an act of terrorism” {§ 70122(b)}. The bill authorizes $3 million for this program.

TWIC Reader Report

The bill requires DHS to submit a report to Congress when it completes their testing of TWIC “access control technologies” (TWIC Readers). It also requires GAO to review that report and report on the report to Congress. Congress continues to be concerned about the slow pace of TWIC Reader implementation.

Especially Hazardous Cargo

Section 812 establishes yet another category of hazardous material; especially hazardous cargo which is defined as: “anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, chlorine, liquefied natural gas, liquiefied (sic) petroleum gas, and any other substance, material, or group or class of material, in a particular amount and form that the Secretary determines by regulation poses a significant risk of creating a transportation security incident while being transported in maritime commerce” {§812(d)(1)}.

Interestingly this extensive section of the bill requires the Secretary to conduct a study of risk assessments relating to these cargoes while mandating the establishment of a security program to protecting security zones around vessels containing such cargo.

Section 828 adds requirements to existing Port Security Zone rules for the Secretary to establish “(c)redentialing standards, training, and certification for State and local support for the enforcement of security zones for the transportation of especially hazardous cargo” {§70132}.

Miscellaneous TWIC Provisions

The TWIC program continues to attract Congressional attention. Section 814 allows the use of a “secondary authentication system to verify identification” when an individuals fingerprints cannot be taken or read. Section 815 requires an assessment of the adequacy of TWIC enrollment sites. Section 818 addresses the time it takes to get a TWIC issued, both allowing escorted access to individuals awaiting a TWIC to be re-issued and requiring studies about the time it takes get cards issued. And §819 allows the Secretary to extend TWIC expirations to align that expiration with “the expiration of a license, certificate of registry, or merchant mariner document”.

Security Training Program

Section 821 requires the Secretary to establish “comprehensive facility security officer training requirements designed to provide full security training that would lead to certification of such officers”. Among other things it requires that the training program “provide for continuing education and training for facility security officers beyond certification requirements, including a program to educate on the dangers and issues associated with the shipment of hazardous and especially hazardous cargo [emphasis added]” {§70125(b)(4)}. It also repeals §113 of the Safe Port Act (6 U.S.C. 911) which contained less comprehensive training requirements.

Integration of Security Plans

Section 822 required facilities and vessels will share vulnerability assessments conducted by the Coast Guard under 46 USC 70102 with port authorities and “appropriate State or local law enforcement agencies” {§70102(c)(1)} to allow for the integration of security plans for that vessel/facility with “compatible systems operated or maintained by the appropriate State, law enforcement agencies, and the Coast Guard” {§70102(c)(2)}.

Semi-submersibles

Section 911 addresses the issue of semi-submersible craft by requiring the Secretary to submit a report to Congress on the Department’s “comprehensive strategy to combat the illicit flow of narcotics, weapons, bulk cash, and other contraband through the use of submersible and semi-submersible vessels”. While this is envisioned as a counter-narcotics operation, the requirement to conduct an “assessment of the threats posed by submersible and semi-submersible vessels” {§911(1)} should probably also identify the potential for smuggling terrorists and weapons near or into port side chemical facilities.

Moving Forward

Once the President signs this legislation the Secretary and the Coast Guard have a lot of work before them. There are studies to conduct, reports to present to Congress and, of course, new regulations to write. It will take some time to see a practical effect from this newly passed legislation.

HR 3619 Amended and Passed in Senate

On Friday the Senate passed HR 3169, the Coast Guard Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011, after it completely substituted the language from S 1194 (as reported in S. Report 111-95) for the language in the bill passed by the House. The bill will now have to go to Conference. None of the chemical security related provisions in the House version that I reported on last October made it into the Senate version of the bill. We’ll have to see how many make it into the conference version of the bill. Interestingly this is the first DHS authorization bill to make it out of the Senate this year. I am looking for a number of others that have passed the House to make out of the Senate this month or next.

HR 3619 Passed in House

On Friday the House passed HR 3619, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, on a recorded vote of 385-11. There were a number of floor amendments made to this bill, though none had any affect on the chemical security related concerns that I addressed in my earlier blog on this bill. There are a number of new provisions that might be of interest to the chemical security community. Security Awareness Section 1101 was expanded to provide for a more comprehensive program to encourage reporting of potential terrorist or criminal activity around vessels and port facilities. Rather than just being targeted at the recreational boating community, the revised America’s Waterway Watch Act is now looking at bringing all citizens into the voluntary and anonymous reporting program. The bill is allocating $3 million for each fiscal year through 2015 to support this program through educational materials and training programs. Semi-Submersibles Section 1332 was added requiring the Secretary to develop a “comprehensive strategy to combat the illicit flow of narcotics, weapons, bulk cash, and other contraband through the use of submersible and semi-submersible vessels”. To date these vessels have been periodically intercepted with cargoes of illegal drugs, but as I mentioned in a blog last year, these could certainly be used in attacks against chemical facilities located at ports. Homeland Security Mission Section 1333 was added to make it clear that the homeland security mission of the Coast Guard take priority over the marine safety mission. That homeland security mission includes protecting ports, waterways and marine transportation systems from acts of terrorism as well as preventing the flow of illegal firearms and weapons of mass destruction through those same facilities. Moving Forward The bill was received in the Senate on Monday, but as of Tuesday afternoon had not yet been assigned to a committee, though it will almost certainly be assigned to the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Many provisions of this legislation were already included in a bill (S 1385) that was co-sponsored by Chairman Rockefeller, so I suspect that this bill will probably see prompt action in that Committee.

CG Authorization Bill

The second authorization bill for an agency of the Department of Homeland Security is moving towards a floor vote in the House. The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 (HR 3619) was reported out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Friday. The House Rules Committee has requested the submission of floor amendments by Wednesday morning in preparation for the Committee’s meeting to formulate the rule for early consideration of the bill. Most of the provisions of this bill are well beyond my area of expertise or interest. There are some provisions that will be of specific interest to the chemical security community. They deal principally with the Transportation Workers Identification Credential (TWIC), but also include a new classification of hazardous materials and some studies to be conducted by DHS. TWIC Provisions Section 1102 requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the results of the current pilot program for the use of TWIC Readers. This section also requires the GAO to review the report being submitted to Congress. While Congress will be waiting on this report the industry will be waiting for the publication of the TWIC Reader proposed rule that is also awaiting completion of this trial. Section 1112 deals with the reported problems of individuals finding a location where they can get their fingerprints taken to use for submitting an application for the TWIC. It will require DHS to establish procedures for allowing these fingerprints to be taken at any DHS operated or contracted facility that already performs fingerprinting of the public. This should ease one of the significant burdens of getting a TWIC application completed. Section 1118 requires the Secretary of DHS to establish biometric identification procedures for issuing TWIC where it is not possible to take or read an individual’s fingerprints. Section 1121 requires the Secretary of DHS to conduct an assessment of current TWIC enrollment sites with a view to keeping them open past September 29th, 2009 (a date which has fairly obviously already passed). Especially Hazardous Materials Section 1117(d) defines a new classification of hazardous materials for special protections under Coast Guard operations, especially hazardous materials (EHM). “The term ‘especially hazardous material’ means anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, chlorine, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and any other substance identified by the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating as an especially hazardous material.” Section 1117(b) provides a number of limitations on the formulation of future facility security plans for EHM terminals or shore side facilities servicing EHM tankers. These limitations include restrictions on the use of State or local government provided security forces. Miscellaneous Studies Section 1108 requires the Secretary of DHS to prepare a report to Congress “analyzing the threat, vulnerability, and consequence of a terrorist attack on gasoline and chemical cargo shipments in port areas in the United States”. There are no restrictions on the classification of the report, so it will almost certainly contain significant amounts of classified material. Hopefully, DHS will be able to share a sanitized version of this report with the regulated community. Section 1120 requires the Secretary to prepare a report to Congress on the extent of State and local government support for Coast Guard security functions in and around port areas. This will focus in large part on the training requirements for State and local law enforcement officers as compared to the training requirements for Coast Guard personnel performing the same functions. Moving Forward With the Rules Committee requiring the filing of amendments by Wednesday morning it is likely that the Rules Committee hearing on this legislation to take part late Wednesday afternoon or on Thursday. Typically this would mean that this legislation would reach the House Floor the following week.